Norbert Michelisz was delighted to have won the second World Touring Car Championship race of the day in front of his home crowd, after a dominant display at the Hungaroring.
Starting from pole, Michelisz was in a class of his own in his upgraded Honda Civic, winning by seven seconds from Tom Coronel to become the first non-Citroen driver to win a race this season.
The result, coupled with an eight-place finish in race one, also means that the Hungarian now leads the Yokohama Trophy standings by four points from Tom Chilton.
And after a slightly disappointing qualifying session on Saturday – which nevertheless handed him the reverse grid pole – Michelisz was thrilled with the result, particularly given the reaction of the fans who had come to watch.
“As a racing driver you always hope for scenarios like this,” he said. “Of course I am very happy with this result and I would like to thank everyone, the team and the fans for their amazing support throughout. Although I couldn’t hear them, I could see them every time I crossed the line and I tried really hard to keep focused.
“The car felt really good and I was really pushing until I could take it a little easier with a good gap back to second, but I kept telling myself I had to concentrate. I could remember how it felt in 2012 when I last won here in WTCC. This is a dream day for me.”
With Honda having brought a heavily revised front end ahead of the weekend, the 30 year-old was also pleased with the performance of his car across both of the day’s races, which he believed bodes well for the remainder of the campaign.
“I think the new aero kit clearly worked well here, but in the first race driving so closely to Tom Chilton was difficult because I had a lot of understeer. I knew I would improve in the second race with clean air. So now I am quite confident for the future and further improvements.”